A Braille press of the latest model has been busy at work at the Blind
People's Association in Ahmedabad for the last one week.

Walk in and you will find many sheets of Braille neatly piled up and numbered
to be sent to the districts of Gujarat. There are about 60,000 sheets here
and they will help make the 2017 Assembly elections inclusive for the blind.

The Braille sheets are being printed for each booth and they
mention the candidate's serial number on ballot, his or her name, and the
name of the election symbol of the candidate.

Voting in Gujarat made more accessible compared to past elections

Voters will need to go through the names other details and decide who to vote
for. They can approach the EVM which has Braille numbers against the buttons
and cast their vote by pushing the button.

In the previous elections, Braille sheets were given only to those booths
that had a high number of blind voters. This time, every booth will have the
sheet so that the person on can cast the vote on their own.

Wheelchairs will also be put at major booths so people with mobility issues
can come to the voting centres. According to Census 2011, Gujarat has
over 10 lakh people with disabilities. The Election Commission
has selected disabled people as ambassadors to encourage people to cast their
vote.

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Hi, I'm Bhavna Sharma. An Inclusion Strategist with Newz Hook. Yes, I am a person with disability. But that doesn’t define who I am. I am a youth, a woman and also the 1st Miss Disability of India 2013. I wanted to achieve something in life and I have been working for the last 9 years. I have recently completed my MBA in Human Resources because I want to grow. I am like every other young person in India. I want a good education, a good job and I want to help my family financially. So you can see I am like everyone else, yet people see me differently.

Here is the Ask Bhavna column for you where I would like to talk to you about the law, society and people’s attitudes and how we can build inclusion in India together.

So, if you have a question about any issue related to disability, bring them out and I can try to answer them? It could be a question relating to a policy or of a personal nature. Well, this is your space to find the answers!